Thank you to our educators as wild school year closes

Shuttering schools wasn’t easy, but teachers rose to the occasion

Yuma County teachers, thank you.

This has been a wild year, and teachers especially felt the brunt of it.

In mid-March, classrooms across Yuma County and Arizona suddenly shut their doors, moving from inperson lessons to online classrooms.

The declaration was made by Gov. Doug Ducey, and it made sense, with the goal of protecting families across Arizona.

But the implications ran deep. Actually implementing the change took countless hours of hard work on the part of educators across the county.

Here in Yuma County, teachers rose to the challenge, in every way, shape and form possible.

Suddenly, school was now a digital delivery system. It wasn’t completely foreign – many of the schools here use tablets and computers to some extent, but not to the level this required.

However, students, teachers and parents worked together to find solutions.

For the students who didn’t have computer or internet access, it was even more challenging, leading to paper packets of information. How does a teacher reach a student via paper packets, with no in-person or on-screen lessons? For some students, help came in the form of a phone call.

And then there were the school nutrition workers, who banded together across Yuma County to make sure students were still fed. That alone was an amazing effort.

When this crisis hit, our educators didn’t shy away from it. Instead, they worked every angle they could to ensure their students weren’t left behind.

It wasn’t easy by any means, but teachers, you made it. You are simply amazing, and we are incredibly thankful for you.

And, parents, thank you too for all the work you’ve done to help your children stay on track. Common Core math? Oy. Many parents out there have a newfound appreciation for how challenging some of these lessons truly are.

The good news is … this school year has come to a close.. And while we don’t know yet how 2020-21 will look come August, we do know this: our teachers, our students and our parents will rise to the occasion, whatever way it unfolds.

Enjoy your summer break … this year above all, it’s a well-deserved one! Unsigned editorials represent the viewpoint of this newspaper rather than an individual. Columns and letters to the editor represent the viewpoints of the persons writing them and do not necessarily represent the views of the Yuma Sun.